ECLECTICA CONTEMPORARY
Eclectica Contemporary is a Cape Town–based gallery dedicated to contemporary artistic practices from Africa and its diaspora.
The gallery presents a dynamic program of emerging and established artists and has participated in leading international art fairs. Artists represented by the gallery have participated in major international biennials and their works are held in significant institutional collections including the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, the Rupert Museum, and the Iziko South African National Gallery, as well as major international foundations and private collections.
Through exhibitions, international presentations, and collaborations with curators and institutions, Eclectica Contemporary contributes to the global discourse surrounding contemporary African art.
EXHIBITIONS
How Did We Become Strangers?
Join Eclectica Contemporary at FNB Art Joburg for a curatorial exploration of belonging, identity and the boundaries we construct between one another. Featuring artists including Johannes Phokela, Ayanda Mabulu and Thando Phenyane, the exhibition brings together dynamic practices that contribute to a layered dialogue around identity, connection and belonging.
Palingenesis
Presented as part of the Cape Town Photography Festival, Palingenesis marks Justin Dingwall’s return to the butterfly, a defining symbol of his early practice. Revisiting the motif through a new lens, the exhibition explores transformation, identity, memory and renewal, bringing earlier works into dialogue with a new body of photographs that reflects the many selves we inhabit and the skins we shed across a lifetime.
Between Truth and Fiction
Presented as part of the Cape Town Photography Festival, Between Truth and Fiction marks a significant new chapter in Hasan Essop’s practice. Through photography, performance and collage, Essop explores the construction of reality and identity, multiplying a single figure into a congregation of characters and possibilities. Drawing on questions of faith, belonging, migration and difference, the works occupy an uncertain space between theatre, documentary, memory and fiction.
Controlled Rupture
Presented as part of HEAT Festival, Lars Fischedick's solo exhibition Controlled Rupture explores the dynamic relationship between precision and disruption. Through carved timber, resin, and metal, the exhibition reveals the hidden forces within material, where geometry, texture, and transformation converge in powerful sculptural works.
INSIGHTS
Not All Lives Are Legible | A Look Back in 2026 | Notes from the Director
Not All Lives Are Legible looks back on three exhibitions, Lost Souls, The Repenters, and Darkness Rising, reflecting on how each engaged with the construction of the “other” within political and cultural systems. Moving from absence to misinterpretation to self-definition, Director Shamiela Tyer revisits questions of visibility, representation, and narrative control that remain deeply relevant today.
Loyiso Mkize | A Nation Still Reckoning with Winnie | Notes from the Director
Notes on the creation of an artwork that would find it's way into becoming the cover image of the Netflix documentary "The Trials of Winnie Mandela" - Shamiela Tyer reflects on Loyiso Mkize's artistic process of capturing Winnie Madikizela-Mandela's essence, in relation to the complexities of her life in the public eye as a prolific political figure.
Johannes Phokela | Exploring Virtue, Contradiction and Power at the 2026 Venice Biennale | Notes from the Director
An atmosphere of virtue, thick with contradiction. Director and curator of Eclectica Contemporary, Shamiela Tyer, revisits Johannes Phokela's inclusion in the 2026 Venice Biennale.